Dating Isn't As Romantic As You Think It Is
by Vicious Ventriloquist
Summary: Over the course of fifteen weeks, Kagura fell in love with Okita Sougo. OkiKagu. Contains Explicit Lemon.
1. Part I

**Hello OkiKagu fandom! I've had this idea sitting around for a while, and a lot of it pre-written, so I decided to polish it a bit and upload it here. This story will be a two-parter, though the second part will definitely be shorter. I hope you guys like it :)**

 **Warnings: Explicit Lemon, Some light comedy (in OkiKagu fashion) and some angst near the end. Also, Sougo being an asshole, because he is.**

* * *

 **Part I: When In Doubt...**

When Kagura looked back on the events of those past fifteen weeks, it was clear to her that it had all started because of the gorilla.

Not in any direct sense—the Chief of the Shinsengumi couldn't entirely be blamed for his unrealistic and borderline psychotic attempts at wooing the elder Shimura's heart—but all the same, Kondo's misguided attempts at romance were at best cringe-worthy and on his worst days could have ended in the destruction of half of Edo were it not for everyone else doing damage control for _anego_ 's rampages.

And, unfortunately for Kagura, a result of one of those "worst days" ended up being an event that, unbeknownst to her at the time and even long after, would haunt her for weeks to come. As a matter of fact, she started off even being _happy_ about it.

So—what was it, you might ask? What could have possibly blindsided the female Amanto to such a degree that even she, bringer of destruction and lover of _sukonbu_ , could have not seen it coming from a mile away? Well, the answer was simple.

It was love. Or, at least, she thought it was. Love…and that damned sadist.

Though, in actuality, she supposed the whole ordeal had started sooner than fifteen weeks ago…

* * *

 _Sixteen weeks ago_ …

* * *

"You damned brat! Give me back my _sukonbu_!"

Kagura didn't even break a sweat as she pursued her target down the sidewalk, her legs pumping her lithe body as fast as it could possibly go. Few things could rev up the girl into such a state, among them being her love for Sadaharu and nearly equivalent love for food.

And, a few minutes ago as she had been walking back to the Yorozuya from the market, that damned Shinsengumi brat had stolen the latter right out of her hands. It wasn't enough that the two of them fought every chance they got, but now he was targeting her even on her day off? And when she had merely gone to the store just to buy some _sukonbu_ , nonetheless?

He had simply gone too far this time, and Kagura was intent on making him pay for it!

He didn't respond to her continued cries, and in fact only seemed to speed up the more detailed and violent her threats became; now all the pedestrians in their path acted fast to avoid the incoming human projectiles, familiar enough with the routine at this point to know that any attempt at interference would be met with quick and immediate death at the hands of either one or both of them.

When their high-speed chase led them to the park, Kagura gave an inner yell of victory; it seemed as though she had finally gained the upper hand, as Sougo appeared to slow down considerably—though she sensed this with a healthy dose of skepticism.

 _What's he up to_ …?

Her question was answered when they came within range of a mud puddle, only for Kagura to cry out in fury and dismay when she saw the recognizable wrapper become airborne as it left Sougo's hand and flew directly towards it.

 _Dammit!_

It was a good thing the Yato cared little for public decency, because the next thing she knew she was careening towards the ground in a desperate attempt at saving her beloved snack—only to be stopped mid-flight by the constriction of her neck and torso.

Glancing downwards as the wind was knocked out of her, Kagura saw the torso of her _qipao_ tighten around her chest, and a brief backwards glance saw her staring right into the red eyes of evil incarnate—in other words, Okita Sougo. His hand held onto the collar of her _qipao_ , his mouth twisted upwards into a mocking grin as his free hand held…her _sukonbu_?!

At her angry and incredulous glance, he merely remarked, "A decoy."

"You son of a—"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You really have to start coming up with better insults, China girl."

A swift kick to the shin was enough to send him into a fit of cursing, and Kagura huffed indignantly as she ripped her favorite snack out of his palm. "You're one to talk. Maybe you should come up with better nicknames! And really, sadist? Stealing a poor girl's food is just low, yep!"

"Poor girl, my ass! Is that any way to thank someone who just saved you from getting covered in mud?!"

"I was at risk because of you in the first place! Not like I'd care, anyway. I can just wear Gin-chan's clothes if all of mine get dirty."

He scoffed at that, a look of disgust falling over his face; the sight tugged at Kagura a bit, though she couldn't say exactly why. " _Danna_ lets you wear his clothes? There's being nice, and then there's just indecent."

Her face burned, and Kagura hissed back, "Well that's none of your business, eh?"

Then, for a brief moment, the Yato swore she saw something more than indifference flicker across his face—something that dangerously threatened to bring out the more hidden facets of her opinion on the sandy-haired man. But it was gone as soon as it came, leaving Kagura to wonder if she had only imagined it.

"I guess it's not," he agreed. "Let's call it a day, then. You've got your _sukonbu_ , and I've got a bruised shin." He started to walk past her, only to turn back around at the last second.

"Oh, and by the way…" he began, "your dress is ripped."

"Wha—?"

Glancing down, Kagura blanched. In the front of her dress, a large tear displayed a sizable portion of her chest and cleavage, along with a fair amount of undergarments. A vein threatened to pop in her forehead, but before she had time to turn around and kick the sadist halfway back to the Shinsengumi compound, he had already vanished.

* * *

The next few days saw a decided shift in Kagura's perception of the sadist she so often sparred with—not in any tangible way, since the two of them still fought whenever they happened across each other and the collateral damage, if anything, only seemed to have escalated, but in such a way that the young woman could only classify as bizarre.

For example, she found herself more conscious of his body when they fought—not in a perverted way, she denied with a blush—almost as if she were worried about hurting him. Though she never used her full Yato strength to spar, she was well aware that even the smallest slip of her finger could have dire consequences for humans, both civilians and idiotic cops alike.

And, to her disgust, she noticed that she tended to make more eye contact with him when they weren't fighting—and, for the first time in the five long years they had known each other, Kagura found that she actually _liked_ the look of his blood-red eyes, especially when he matched them with that fevered grin he always sported during their matches.

She wondered idly what he would look like if he were actually smiling, not because of his latest sadistic trick, but because he really meant it; would he ever look at her in that way? Or would he—

She cut off that train of thought before it could even fully articulate, her face heating with embarrassment despite being totally alone in her closet in the Yorozuya.

Yep, she was in trouble, all right.

* * *

 _One week later_ …

* * *

"Sis, please calm down! Kondo-san didn't mean it—"

"Oi, Shinpachi, you call that 'not meaning it?' He was hiding in her bathtub, you know. That's typical pervert move number three."

Kagura rolled her eyes, not bothering to move from where she stood at the street vendor's booth. Gin-chan and Shinpachi were trying in vain to calm down a raging _anego_ , who stood towering over the Chief of the Shinsengumi from where he had collapsed on the sidewalk outside of the Shimuras' dojo.

Though she hadn't been there when the fight broke out (one-sided though it looked to be) Kagura could glean what had happened from Gin-chan's blunt observation, _anego_ 's rage, and the gorilla's guilty expression.

 _Well, he deserves whatever he gets, the pervy gorilla._

"Let go of me, Shin-chan!" Otae demanded, her face contorted into a mask of impotent fury. "I don't want you to be in the line of fire!"

"Oi! She's going to bring down the whole city! What are you gonna do about this, you guys?!"

Kagura turned her head towards the recipients of Gin-chan's question, only for her face to heat up when she recognized the two men who had arrived on the scene: the Mayora, with the sandy-haired sadist in tow. Both of them sported characteristically un-amused looks, though the former's was tinged with blatant frustration.

"Kondo-san," the nicotine addict drawled, "you should realize by now that stalking is technically a crime. How does it look to the people of Edo when their own Chief of police can't follow the laws?" It spoke volumes about their relationship that this all seemed to be business as usual for them.

"B-But—"

"No buts, Kondo-san," the sadist chimed in. "If you keep this up, you're going to end up getting yourself killed." Kagura thought it might be her imagination, but she could swear that the young man's eyes flickered over to her for a second.

It took a bit more prodding, but eventually the gorilla resigned himself to hanging his head in shame before being led away by Hijikata. Shinpachi, meanwhile, returned to the Herculean task of calming down his elder sister. Kagura had already turned away from the scene, and had just gotten her dango from the street vendor when she heard a grunt from behind her.

"Oi, China girl."

She tried to force the blush off her face before facing him, nervously shoving half of the dango into her mouth in an attempt to create a distraction. "Sadist?" she coughed out, the word garbled through the food clogging her throat. "You wanna go right now?"

He raised a brow at her bizarre behavior, but wisely didn't mention it. "Uh…no. I actually wanted to ask you something, if you're not too busy choking to death on your dango."

She swallowed the literal lump in her throat. "…Oh. What is it?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Kagura noticed Gin-chan watching their exchange with a wary expression. She silently begged him to interfere, to put a stop to this situation before she ended up saying or doing something that would tip off the sadist as to how she actually—

"Wanna go on a date with me?"

The next three seconds saw a progression of events: the first was that Kagura all but inhaled the dango remaining in her mouth, leading to a fit of choking and coughing that could have awoken half of Edo. The second was that several chunks of it flew out of her mouth and into Sougo's face, causing the man to stare blankly at the young woman.

The third was that Gintoki absolutely freaked out.

" _Say what_?!" His high-pitched cry was emphasized by how he slid into place beside the couple, his eyes all but bugging out of his head. His disbelieving stare was shared between the both of them. "Wait wait wait wait wait wait _wait_! Hold on! What's going on here, Soichiro?!"

"Sougo."

"Since when did you have designs on Kagura?! I thought you two hated each other's guts!"

"I don't know about her, but I like anyone that can hold their own against me. You probably just can't tell, _danna_ , since hardly anyone understands the subtleties of my behavior." He shrugged, and Kagura's eyes nearly burst out of her skull as he gave her the tiniest of smiles. "I'd at least like to take you out on a date."

Her stomach fell to her feet when she realized that there was a chance he might actually be sincere. Her face burned, and her mouth hung open in a wordless stutter that refused to obey her no matter how much she tried to say _anything_ in response.

Gin-chan resumed his incoherent rambling, the gist of it from what she could tell being that she was far too young (though nineteen was really well past the acceptable age, and he knew it) and on top of that, she hated Sougo's guts.

In her own mind, however, Kagura knew that the latter statement was unequivocally false; she didn't hate the sadist, and on some level she wondered if she ever actually had. She certainly found him physically attractive (though it made her blush to admit it) and as of late she had found her thoughts preoccupied by him more and more, and in a non-homicidal way to boot.

So, in the midst of Gin-chan's fabricated excuses on her behalf, Kagura stood up straight, looked the expectant young man in the eyes, and said:

"All right. Where are we going?"

The silence that followed, punctuated moments later by Gin-chan's exclamation of utter shock, was nearly enough to make her regret her decision.

But not by much.

* * *

To his credit, the sadist really seemed as though he were trying not to be a prick on their date—or "friendly outing," as Gin-chan insisted on calling it. They had decided on meeting at the diner a few blocks away from the Yorozuya; Sougo most likely believed that she would be most comfortable there. (It would also require the least amount of effort on his part, coincidentally, but Kagura was just glad that he was actually acting like a normal person for once.)

She arrived at their arranged location a few minutes early, nervously twirling her umbrella as she entered the establishment, and looked down at her clothes. She had elected to wear the same _qipao_ she normally did, beside herself with the temptation to act as though this were just a normal meet-up between friends.

 _Yeah, right_ , she thought sarcastically. _As if we've ever just hung out as friends before, either_. Once again, she worried over the fact that this date would go horribly wrong, and she would somehow end up outing herself as having a pre-existing crush on the sadist. She had already accepted the fact, but was still loathe in allowing any inkling of her feelings to be divulged to the sandy-haired man.

She snapped out of her reverie when she noticed a familiar hand waving at her from the other side of the restaurant, and paled when she saw that it was indeed attached to Sougo. Not one to run away from her fears, she held her head high and approached the table, taking a seat without so much as allowing eye contact until she sat down.

"Good afternoon," she said stiffly, immediately cursing her overly formal introduction.

"Why are you so stiff?" he instantly asked, leaning his cheek on a palm. "Cut it out. You're going to make this awkward, China."

She sent him a glare. "Shut it, sadist! I only came here cause I wanted to give you a chance."

"Oh? And how am I doing so far?"

"Pretty terrible, actually."

He sighed, crossing his arms as he leaned against the cushioned booth. "Well, I often get told by Kondo-san that I lack tact when dealing with women, but since he's the one always getting the crap beaten out of him by _anego_ , I take whatever he says with a grain of salt."

Kagura giggled, remembering the gorilla's most recent "attempt" (that title being generous) at getting Otae to fall in love with him. "Yeah, he's pretty clueless, isn't he? But then again, aren't you in the same position as him? I regularly beat the crap out of you, too."

"That's different. We both beat the crap out of each other. It's like a choreographed dance."

Against her better judgment, Kagura laughed at that, covering her mouth in an attempt to stifle her loud giggles. "I guess you have a point, sadist—wow, never thought I'd be saying that."

"Eh? I'm always right, China girl. Your skull's just too thick most of the time."

"Bite me!"

The two of them continued bickering for a few more minutes, only stopping the flow of insults when their hapless waitress came over to take their order. Kagura, in typical fashion, ordered nearly half the menu under the presumption that Sougo would be the one paying for it ("You're the one who asked me out, aren't you?") while the unsuspecting man shrugged and decided to get the place's most expensive steak ("I'll just have them put it on the Shinsengumi's tab.").

The longest moment of silence between them was when their food arrived, as the vermillion-haired girl immediately set to work on devouring all of the edible matter placed in front of her. In contrast, Sougo took his time on his steak, allocating time to cut it into bite-sized pieces rather than shoving the entirety of the mass into his mouth as the girl across from him did. Ironically (though not surprisingly), she ended up finishing her food before him, and sat for a few minutes in post-digestive silence while watching her "date" finish his own portion.

When he had only a few bites left of his meal, Kagura found it appropriate to break the silence.

"Say," she began, fiddling with her hands, "why did you really ask me out? I mean, apart from the obvious answer…"

He glanced up at her with a mouth full of food, swallowing it before setting down his silverware. "Well, believe it or not, it really is the obvious answer."

A light blush adorned her cheeks, and she fervently hoped he didn't notice. "What do you mean?"

He rolled his eyes. "Really, China? Do I have to come right out and say it? I like you."

 _I like you_. No matter how much she tried to stop it, Kagura couldn't hold back the obvious rush of blood to her cheeks. Damn her for being young and having a crush on such a bastard! Why did she have to react to everything he said while he never seemed affected?! It wasn't fair! "D-Do you really? For how long?"

He leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms behind his head as his eyes glanced upwards. "Well, it's hard to say. Maybe a few months? A year? I've never been good at distinguishing hating from liking."

Kagura sighed in exasperation. "I'll never get a straight answer from you, will I?"

"Probably not in the way you want. I'm not a normal guy."

"Obviously."

He shrugged. "Well, I doubt it bothers you much if that's your reaction to it. Anyway, since we're done with our food, you wanna head over to my place?"

Her eyes widened, and the blush that seized her was enough to nearly send her into cardiac arrest. "Y-Your place?!"

"Not like that—you've got a pretty dirty mind. I just recently moved out of the Shinsengumi compound, and my new place has a backyard that's perfect for sparring. You in? I've been missing our fights lately."

That made her relax quite a bit, and she sent him one of her usual devious glances. "You're on, sadist! I'll wipe the floor with you!"

He returned her glare with just as much fervor. "I'd like to see you try."

* * *

She returned home that night well past her "curfew" (as granted by Gin-chan) and pointedly ignored the silver-perm's stern proclamations of worry as she headed towards her closet. With a clipped reply of "G'night," she slipped into her sleeping quarters and shut the door in the older man's face, sighing as she folded her arms beneath her head.

All in all, the date wasn't nearly as catastrophic as she had feared. As a matter of fact, she had actually had fun both during and after, when they sparred back at Sougo's place; her butterflies had mostly receded by then, and she had allowed herself to go wild against the young man in a way she hadn't had the luxury of doing lately.

And, at the end of the night, he had asked her out again—and without hesitation, she had said yes.

Kagura wondered if this meant they were dating now, or if they were boyfriend and girlfriend. The thought put a weird feeling in her gut—she never would've thought her and the sadist would end up dating under any circumstances—but it wasn't necessarily bad. Surely they would be if this kept up, and she had no qualms with continuing it. In fact, she couldn't wait to see what the next few weeks would bring.

That night, the young woman fell asleep with a smile on her face.

* * *

The next two months saw a steady progression of the pair's relationship (if it could so be called) in the form of a series of subsequent dates and outings. They returned to the restaurant frequently, but on top of that and all the times they ran into each other in the course of business (her for the Yorozuya, him for the Shinsengumi), they also went other places. One time they went to a festival in another district, but they eventually got kicked out after causing both minor physical and emotional trauma to the man who ran one of the game booths. Another time they went to an amusement park, where the same process repeated itself but on a much grander scale—and involving several disgruntled carnies, a family of four, and far too much cotton candy for one human to consume (but which was child's play for the Yato female). Even Sougo secretly confided to her that he probably wouldn't be able to look at her the same way again for a while.

On the whole, Kagura had spent the last eight weeks having more fun than she had in a long time—and it was mostly due to that sadist. Even when they weren't together, causing mischief for the Kabuki district and spreading trouble seemingly wherever they went, the young woman found her mind frequently wandering back to him. But no longer were they thoughts of dislike or annoyance, or even that childlike affection she had been harboring in the time leading up to their first date; no, these thoughts were something deeper, feelings that she wasn't quite able to pinpoint but which emerged in full force whenever she happened to get a glimpse of his face, imagined or otherwise.

They hadn't even kissed yet, but the vermillion-haired alien thought this was hardly a reason for her to have misgivings about her emotions. After all, it wasn't as though they had to get down and dirty in order for them to be official…right? It wasn't weird that she was already feeling so strongly, was it?

Though she hadn't voiced these concerns to anybody, not even _anego_ , Kagura secretly wondered if the feelings were—and even the idea made her fidget with nerves—love.

* * *

 _Several weeks later…_

* * *

"Oi, earth to China!"

Dazed, Kagura lifted her head from where it rested in her palm and met Sougo's gaze. "Huh?"

"You feeling all right? You look like you're about to pass out on me. Don't die, okay? You aren't allowed to die unless I'm the one who kills you."

She shot him a glare. It may have been true that her attention had been preoccupied lately, but if anything it was only worse when he was around. Her jumbled thoughts were only made more chaotic in his presence, and she sure as hell knew it wasn't because of anything innocent.

"I'm fine," she said, reclining on the park bench. And it wasn't entirely a lie. The biggest direct problem in her life at the moment was sitting right next to her, hanging out with her in a park, and he was supposed to be her boyfriend—though they had never really made it official. Everyone else just assumed they were together by this point.

And she was happy—or, at least, she thought she was. But for some reason, when she woke up this morning to come and meet him at the park, she had felt nervous—nervous in a way that she hadn't been since their first date. She supposed it could have something to do with her dream last night, in which he had been a prominent star. Nothing too dirty had happened (she highly doubted that she would have been able to come and face him if that had been the case) but he had been acting differently, his smiles all sultry and eyes burning as he had embraced her, kissing her lips as he—

Okay, maybe it was a _bit_ dirtier than she remembered, but still! He had to have those kinds of thoughts too, right? Why was she so stressed over something like that?

 _Maybe…it's because I want to do that with him in real life?_

"You're spacing out again," she heard him say, his body heat suddenly far too close to ignore.

She turned to face him and, seeing his face only inches from hers, was once again struck with admiration at how handsome he looked up close.

And before Kagura realized what she was doing, she had planted a full-on kiss on his mouth.

As soon as their lips touched he froze, his eyes wide open as the redhead became aware of what she'd done. Yet instead of panicking as she would have thought, she merely pulled her lips away and folded her hands in her lap, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. Oh, her face was on fire, to be sure, and it looked as though even he had a light tinge of pink dusted over his cheekbones, but more than anything else she was smug.

 _I did it!_ She couldn't help doing an internal victory fist-pump. _Take that, butterflies! I kissed him first!_

"…China?"

"Eh?"

"…What was that?"

She raised a brow. "Uh, duh? It was a kiss, stupid. I figured it was time we did it already, since it seemed like you were never gonna do it yourself."

His face remained utterly blank for a few tense seconds before—and Kagura swore eternal vengeance on him for this—he burst into uncontrollable laughter.

 _What the hell?!_ "Why the hell are you laughing, idiot sadist?!" If he were making fun of her, there would be hell to pay.

He shook his head, wiping the tears that had run from the corners of his eyes. "It's…it's just that… _that's_ what you call a kiss?"

Oh, he was so _dead_. He would pay dearly for humiliating her so. "What right do you have to make fun of me when you haven't even made a move yet, huh?" She huffed, turning away from him and crossing her arms. "Maybe I should go get a new boyfriend, then, yep."

He went suddenly silent behind her, and without moving a muscle she felt him slide closer. A hand landed on her shoulder, and before she could do anything she felt his heated breath on the back of her neck.

"Listen, China…" he started, his voice low, "if you really wanted to take this to the next level, you could have just told me, you know."

She tried to ignore the sudden pounding of her heart and the goose bumps that rose on her skin in response to his words, and instead offered a quiet, "Really?"

"Sure," he confirmed. "And, if you want…we could go back to my place. I'm sure _danna_ wouldn't notice if you were gone for a while. Today's your day off too, right?"

She nodded mindlessly, leftover images from last night's dream plaguing her as she digested the implications of Sougo's offer. Did he mean what she thought he meant, or was he just messing with her? If it were the former…well, she would be lying if she said she wasn't giving it serious consideration. They had been dating for a while, about fifteen weeks at this point, and she was well aware that other couples that had been together for shorter periods of time had already done the deed. Hell, even couples that were younger than them were doing it nowadays! Kagura knew she was a grown woman, at least in the eyes of the law and in many ways wise beyond her years—as long as she knew she wanted to do it, what was stopping her?

Nothing, she decided—the answer was nothing.

"All right," she agreed, turning to face the man behind her with what she hoped was a seductive look. "Let's go."

* * *

Going to the sadist's place to spar was one thing, but going there armed with the knowledge that she was intending to have sex with him was another. All of her previous confidence regarding the situation seemed to vanish as soon as they crossed the threshold of his home, and the journey to his bedroom was similarly harrowing.

It wasn't that she didn't want to do it, or that she was already regretting the decision before she'd even gone through with it, but a part of her, the part that housed all of her insecurities, wondered if she would not end up making a fool of herself. Would she be any good? Could the sadist have done this sort of thing with other girls, and if so, would he be comparing her to them?

There were far too many variables for her to keep track of, but Kagura planned to try her best to forget about them for the next few…hours? Minutes? _How long does this sort of thing take, anyway?!_ She assumed that the mechanics of human sex were similar to those of the Yato, but beyond that, the young woman drew a blank due to lack of personal experience.

When they got to the bedroom, Sougo immediately flopped down on his bed, folding his arms underneath his head as he turned to glance at the girl who lingered in the doorway.

"Something wrong?" he asked lazily.

"Uh, no," she said honestly, suddenly feeling self-conscious. "It's just…do you mind if I use your shower?"

* * *

The hot water was soothing like nothing else, carrying with it the promise that even if tonight ended up being a total flop, she could at least turn to a bath in an attempt to wash away her shame—or to drown herself, if the need arose.

The redhead pulled her hair back, doing her best to rinse out Sougo's shampoo so as not to leave any unbecoming stains on his bed later—though, with the limited knowledge she had gleaned from Gin-chan's "adult entertainment," she knew that there might be other stains to worry about instead.

She was so caught up in her continuous worries that the steam and noise from the hot water was more than enough to hide the presence of the bathroom's intruder—that is, until he pulled back the curtain.

Kagura cried out in shock as the comparatively colder air hit her skin, and she crossed her arms over her chest on instinct.

"What the—? Sadist?" Sure enough, the sandy-haired man stood outside the shower, the steam transparent enough for Kagura to see that he, too, was completely naked. "What are you…"

She couldn't even finish the question, her anger at being intruded on dying along with her voice. She went slack-jawed as her eyes traced over the young man's chest, the sinewy muscles she had known he had and even seen a few times when his clothes had been torn during a fight, but which now took on a far more sensual connotation in the current context. She blushed darkly at the sight of his lower half, which apparently he felt no apprehension or shyness about putting on full display. Bringing her eyes back up to his face, Kagura flushed at his serious look, at the half-lidded eyes that for once were not darkened with bloodlust, but the regular kind.

She didn't need to be a mind reader to know that he was thinking similar things about her own body—his own betrayed those thoughts for him.

Kagura didn't protest as he stepped under the hot water with her, not even bothering to close the curtain behind him. His hand closed around one of her wrists, pulling it down and away from her chest as he towered over her. Her other hand followed suit of its own accord.

 _When did he get so freaking tall?!_

He stared down at her, his hair now wet and gaze intense as it roamed over her face, her neck, down to her chest (she blushed at that) and past her hips before returning to linger on her lips. His free hand reached up to rest on the side of her neck, while the other slid up to her hip and gripped her there. The feeling sent a jolt through her body, and she exhaled harshly as he bent his face towards hers.

Kagura barely had time to take a breath before he kissed her, his lips insistent against hers in a way that put her earlier attempt to shame and caused her stomach to nearly burst with butterflies. She returned it with fervor, molding her mouth to his as he deepened the kiss, and parted her lips when he prodded his tongue against them. She sighed into the kiss as their tongues intertwined, moaning softly as the hand on her hip slid upwards across her stomach, leaving a tingling sensation in its wake. It then hazarded a move in the other direction, sliding around to caress her backside before Sougo delivered a harsh squeeze. Kagura jumped at the feeling, grinning stupidly against his mouth when she felt him snicker in response.

"Wondering how I'm so good at this?" he asked in a sultry voice, his mouth venturing sideways to pepper kisses along her jawbone and neck. She panted at his actions, her nerves nearly shredded by his ministrations as it was. If he continued like this…well, then she may not last five minutes.

"No," she gasped, biting her tongue as his fingertips grazed the underside of her breast. Her nails clutched at his naked back, digging into the flesh in a way that she knew he would appreciate later. "Just wondering how you still manage to act like such a bastard at a time like this."

She yelped as his mouth suddenly descended on her chest, nipping at the skin above her breasts while his right hand held one in a surprisingly gentle palm. "Oh, yeah?" he teased her, his red eyes glancing up at her mischievously. "You haven't seen anything yet, China girl."

It didn't take them long to move from the shower to the bedroom—namely, as soon as the hot water started to run cold. Kagura had the temperature cranked up so high to begin with that it had barely lasted ten minutes.

Not that she was complaining, of course, for the second her back hit Sougo's sheets she was plenty warm already. He didn't allow even a second to pass before he was hovering over her, his naked chest pressed against hers. Even if she was inexperienced, the young woman knew enough to spread her legs without being asked, allowing Sougo to get even closer to her as his hips nestled between her thighs. She had seen him put the condom on already, so she closed her eyes, silently gritting her teeth as she waited for him to enter her.

But he didn't.

Instead, much to her surprise, his body slid upwards against hers, bringing him up to her level as he resumed their previous kiss. His skin brushed against her nipples, creating a sense of friction that made her purr with want; the place between her legs ached for its own stimulation, but she was forced to make due with rubbing herself against Sougo's lower stomach for the time being. She was already incredibly wet, and she tried to show him this by pulling him closer to her and wrapping her legs even tighter around him.

He broke the kiss to snicker evilly and reseal his lips against her throat, sucking the ticklish spot behind her ear with enthusiasm that almost made her cry out. She didn't know where he got off being so cocky (pun intended), seeing as she could feel how hard he already was against her inner thigh.

 _He must have done this before_.

She tried to ignore the little voice in her head, focusing instead on how hot she felt and how warm he was against her, and it became much easier to do so when his mouth inched down her throat and between her breasts as he had done before—only this time, he closed his lips around her nipple, his tongue playfully flicking across the hardened peak.

That was it. Whereas before Kagura had only been letting out small sounds, this time she released a deep moan in the back of her throat, along with it coming the strangled syllables of her lover's nickname.

"S-Sadist…" She clutched his hair in one hand, unsure of whether she should pull him closer or push him away. With how much she ached for him to move on, she was leaning more towards the latter.

Her discomfort was only made worse when his left hand caressed her body, journeying across the slope of her curves as it made its way to her inner thigh. Kagura stiffened against her will, her nerves a frayed mess as one of his fingers reached between her legs. She subconsciously spread her legs further as the tip of his finger traced her slit, somehow causing her to become even wetter than she already was. Kagura felt like she was on fire, as though she would spontaneously combust at any moment, and she was _not_ in the mood to deal with any more of his games.

Before Sougo knew what had happened, the Yato had reversed their positions, flipping him over so that she hovered above him, her hands on his chest providing balance. Her sex was mere centimeters from his, and as she tried to catch her breath, he grinned devilishly up at her.

"Tired already, eh?" he teased her, his hand reaching up to tug on a piece of her hair.

"Shut up."

He used the hair in his hand to pull her back down, connecting their lips once again as Kagura shimmied into position above him. Her nails raked down his chest and abdomen, and he hissed in approval when her hips bucked against his, drawing her slit across the tip of his erection. His hands, which had moved to her hips, dug into the flesh of her sides, and she rejoiced in the fact that for once he seemed to be the one in need.

"Kagura," he said in warning as she sank down onto him, for the first time using her real name.

"Hm?"

And then, she fully sat down, taking him in entirely while the man beneath her groaned in response. She, meanwhile, also released a moan, but hers was mixed with pain just as much as pleasure. Had she sat down too fast? A tear pricked at the corner of her eye, but she wiped it away as fast as possible so he wouldn't see. She spent a moment fidgeting a bit, trying to get comfortable, but Sougo was having none of that.

Before she could protest, he had once again flipped their positions, and Kagura released a pained gasp as her back hit the mattress, the pressure inside her growing exponentially with the unexpected switch. His hands pinned her wrists to either side of her head, and her body curved upwards, as though drawn to his like a magnet.

"Sorry," he said quickly, catching her by surprise. She nodded, too breathless to respond with words.

And then he started moving.

Kagura instantly whined when he pulled out of her, the subsequent feeling of fullness as he reentered making her body tense up in shock—but not necessarily discomfort, she realized with another moan. A pleasurable feeling spread throughout her abdomen with every thrust, and he swallowed the sounds she made as their lips reconnected in the fray. Her legs wrapped around his waist, and she held onto him for dear life as he increased his pace, her hips gyrating in tandem with his own.

"S-Sougo," she rasped, her breath mingling with his.

"What's up?"

"S-Screw you."

"You already are."

She laughed at his poor attempt at humor, her nose bumping against his; just for effect, she gave it a small kiss in affection. She could have been mistaken, but she swore that he almost looked surprised.

She soon forgot that, however, as a particularly harsh thrust sent her vision careening into a mess of blinking stars. _This guy's gonna kill me_. "Sougo, I think I'm—"

"Me, too."

The tension in her lower belly had built up to an unbearable degree, and with a final thrust from Sougo it snapped; Kagura's ensuing moan was loud, but she barely even noticed it over the sensation of pure euphoria that washed over her, spreading from her center to the tip of her toes. Her entire body stiffened in response, shaking slightly as the waves of pleasure ran their course across her goose-fleshed skin. She felt Sougo stiffen above her as well, a throaty groan meeting her ears as he went flaccid inside her.

In the next few seconds, Kagura tried to catch her breath; she felt really, really warm, with the combined sweat from the both of them caked onto her skin in such a way that she knew her previous shower was just rendered pointless.

But she didn't care.

Sougo slid off of her and fell to the side, landing on his back on the rumpled sheets as he too tried to steady his breathing. Kagura turned to face him and curled her body inwards, wrapping an arm around his and burying her nose in his shoulder. She closed her eyes.

 _He smells good_.

Maybe it was that she was too groggy to think things through, or perhaps she just thought that right then, in the afterglow of what they had just done, was the best time to say it, but Kagura hardly gave second consideration to what she said next.

"I love you."

When nothing but silence met her ears, Kagura started to panic a bit. Had she said it too fast? What if he thought she was weird for falling in love with him after less than four months? Or worse—what if he didn't feel the same way yet? Was it even _possible_ for a super sadist to fall in love like a normal person?

She was snapped out of her panic by a subtle vibration. Incredulous, she opened her eyes only to see Sougo…shaking?

 _What the…?_

She sat up, staring down at him as he—and her eyes widened at this—appeared to be laughing hysterically, though the sound was quite subdued by the hand that muffled it. It reminded her of what he had done earlier that day, though admittedly much more quiet—but despite that, in light of what had just happened, Kagura found it to be ten times as disturbing.

"What are you doing?" she asked. "Have you finally lost your mind, huh?"

He opened his eyes to stare at her, wiping away the second round of tears from that day. "Have _you_? ' _I love you!_ '" He emphasized the second half of his statement with dramatic tension, and Kagura's face burned from the taunt. "I gotta hand it to you, China, that's impressive. I didn't think you'd actually go that far."

Dumbfounded, all Kagura could do was stare back at him. "I…what?"

"I'll admit it, though, you had me going there for a second earlier. I was almost fooled, you know—but I'm a sore loser, and I wasn't about to give up that easily. At least we got some kicks out of it, right?"

In the recesses of her mind, the young woman felt a pit grow in her stomach; somehow, she already knew where this was headed—but whether because she really was a masochist, or because she was in denial, she instead allowed her annoyance to take over. "I'm serious," she said. "I meant it. Why are you being such a bastard, huh?"

He raised a brow at her. "Yeah, yeah, China, you can stop playing the game now. You aren't going to break my heart. Besides, we both had a pretty good romp just now. You have my approval, pig."

Her throat constricted, but before he could see the hurt on her face Kagura turned away from him, allowing her legs to dangle off of the bed. For a moment, she was in absolute shock. She often got out of sticky situations by pretending to be an airheaded idiot, but this…this was one situation that she could clearly see through. Sougo's words implied not only that he didn't believe she really loved him, but that all of her actions towards him had been faked.

And that meant…

"So…" she started, her eyes burning. "Does that mean…that during all these past few months, you've been…" _Faking it_. Tears burned at the corners of her eyes, threatening to escape if a wrong word was uttered.

"Pretending?" he finished for her. There was a pregnant pause, but then he said, "Well, I'd never answer a question like that honestly, you know. I like our fights. We make good rivals, and I'd never want to ruin a good thing with _danna_. I only kept this going for so long because you kept prolonging it. You were acting pretty flirty lately, so I thought you were just messing with me. That's why I asked you out."

With that, Kagura's heart shattered. Before she could stop them, the tears had escaped their confines, running down her face in earnest as she tried desperately not to start sobbing in front of who she had thought was her boyfriend.

 _But he wasn't. He never was_.

"Well, I…" She choked on her words, a sob caught in her throat. "I…wasn't."

"Wasn't what?"

"…Faking."

He paused again, seemingly digesting her words. He snickered, the sound causing metaphorical knives to wedge themselves deeper into her heart. "You can't be serious," he said, punctuated by the sound of him sitting up in bed. "You don't expect me to believe—"

A hand laid itself on her bare shoulder, and that was all it took for the Yato to snap—but not in anger. Oh, no.

This was pure, unhinged devastation.

She whipped around to face him, her tear tracks and watery eyes visible, and he stared back at her, dumbstruck by her appearance.

" _Don't touch me_!"

Slapping his hand away, Kagura grabbed the nearest sheet and covered herself, feeling far too vulnerable in the large bedroom. She used it to stifle her sobs, her legs weak as she struggled to find the willpower to leave.

"…China?"

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she simply said, "That was my first time, you idiot."

She waited for him to provide a noncommittal "Oh," or at least some acknowledgment of his wrongdoing—no matter how out of character it would be for him to do so—but instead, all she got was a simple:

"Huh…I didn't realize Yato cared about those kinds of things."

And that was enough to make her break down.

Kagura bolted from the room as fast as she could, mindless of Sougo's shouts as she desperately gathered her fallen clothes from the bathroom. She pulled them on as quickly as possible, not even bothering to put her hair back in its trademark buns before dashing through the hallway, making her way towards the exit.

Her purple umbrella sat near the doorway, and Kagura only stopped to grab it before throwing open the front door. Even though she heard Sougo calling her name from behind—for once not using her insulting nickname—she didn't stop to address him.

She didn't even look at him before she tore into the street, the umbrella not being used for its intended purpose as the rain soaked her clothes.

At least it would wash away his smell.

She ran all the way back to the Yorozuya, sobbing all the while, with only a few tangible thoughts keeping her company on the journey.

 _It was all bullshit. He doesn't love me. He doesn't even like me. It was all a lie. He's so stupid. So, so stupid._

… _And so am I_.

When she came home crying, Gin-chan didn't ask where she had been. It seemed, at least to her, that he instinctively knew. He didn't ask her what had happened, because Kagura thought that he probably knew that as well. He just sat with her on the couch, allowing her to cry into his lap while his hand sat comfortingly on her soaked vermillion hair, and thought:

 _I'm going to kill that damn brat_.

* * *

 **I hope that wasn't too hard on anyone's hearts. If so, I apologize, and I hope the next installment makes up for it. On a side note, I'd just like to mention that if anyone's pissed off at Sougo to remember that his character is quite objectively an asshole. Don't get me wrong, I love him, but he's pretty much a complete dick to Kagura most of the time, at least in the more lighthearted moments of the show. And that's why we love this pairing, isn't it? Because their dynamic is just so much fun. That being said, he pulled a horribly dick move on Kagura-chan (even if he didn't know her feelings were genuine) in this story and despite being the author I want to make him suffer for it.**

 **And, on the other hand, it also makes for some damn good angst. In any case, I hope you guys enjoyed this fic and appreciated it for the light comedy elements I tried to include (as well as the over-saturation of angst near the end)! And the smut of course. Never forget about the smut.**

 **Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time!**

 **-Vicious Ventriloquist**


	2. Part II

**Here's the second (and final) chapter. I know I said it would be shorter, but I lied. Thanks for all the reviews! I enjoyed reading them.**

* * *

 **Part II: Punch Yourself In the Face And Stop Whining**

Okita Sougo could only watch in temporary shock as the Yorozuya girl, heedless of her own nudity (though he most definitely wasn't, he thought with a perverted grin), bolted from his bed and towards the bathroom.

 _Damn_ , he thought, exasperated, _I probably shouldn't have said that last part, huh_? "China, wait!" He called her nickname a few more times, all to no avail, before deciding to try something new. "Kagura!" The name felt odd on his tongue, and he chalked up his earlier use of it during sex to the heat of the moment. He sighed as he got up, the more serious part of him knowing that he couldn't just sit there while she freaked out.

He couldn't entirely be faulted, though, could he? Her expression and words had caught him totally off guard! How was he supposed to know that the entire time, she was apparently serious about him?! Did she think he was a mind reader? They always played each other for fools—why should this have been any different?

The young man nearly tripped over his own feet in his haste to remove the used condom and slip on a pair of pants, cursing both his post-coital high and the female Amanto for being so unnecessarily troublesome. He was just about to follow her, intent on telling her so (and possibly offering a gruff apology for upsetting her more than usual) when the corner of his eye caught her as she ran past his door. She didn't spare him a passing glance, but Sougo froze when he fully took in her appearance—and all of a sudden, he found himself unable to call out to her.

The young woman's hair was down, strands of it still stuck to her face with sweat; she hadn't even bothered to grab her hair ornaments. Her clothes were similarly disheveled, the _qipao_ hanging loose around some parts of her chest as though she hadn't bothered to put it on all the way.

But the part that stopped him in his tracks, that made words die in his throat, was her eyes. They were staring straight ahead, but even through the thick, shiny layer of tears and the tracks that ran down her cheeks he could see the utter devastation in them.

… _China?_

With a familiar pang in his chest, it occurred to Sougo that he had seen that look before.

He had seen his late sister wear it once.

But then the redhead vanished, and as soon as she disappeared down the hall his voice returned to him.

" _China_!"

He couldn't say why he did it, or why he abruptly felt panicked at the prospect of the young woman leaving without him getting an opportunity to say anything else to her, but Sougo gave chase. "China, wait up!"

She ignored him, or for all he knew wasn't even listening as she grabbed the weaponized purple umbrella she had set in his foyer.

 _That idiot!_ "Ch—Kagura! Would you stop running for a second?!"

He reached out a hand to grab her just as she threw open the door, letting in a spray of rain that instantly soaked the entryway of his home. Startled, he took a step back, mindful of his bare feet and chest before realizing that she hadn't bothered to do the same.

" _Kagura_!"

He called her name repeatedly from the doorway, but ultimately watched, aghast, as the redhead tore down the rain-slicked sidewalk and away from his house at breakneck speed. She didn't bother to use her umbrella.

Even through the pouring rain, Sougo would be remiss if he didn't notice her shaking shoulders, or the contorted grief on her face as she audibly sobbed her heart out.

For some reason, the sight of it made him grit his teeth.

* * *

That night was without a doubt one of the worst Kagura had ever experienced in her time on Earth.

Even though Gin-chan sat in companionable silence with her while she soaked his kimono with her tears, she couldn't bear to look him in the eyes and confirm what had happened (even if she thought he already had a hint). The girl was nothing if not proud, and the humiliation was too fresh in her mind for her to attempt to explain it without bursting into a new round of sobbing and snot. She had pretty much devolved into a sniffling incoherent mess by the time the sun started to peak over the horizon, her eyes and nose rubbed raw from her own hands and the now-stiff cloth of the silver-perm's outfit.

When her cries had dulled into whimpers, she heard the man above her sigh, and the hand in her hair provided a reassuring pat. In his typical lackadaisical tone, he said, "Listen, you don't have to work or leave the house today. Go take a long nap or something while I'm out, all right?"

She sniffled. "G-Gin-chaaan!" she cried, throwing her arms around the man's waist in a clumsy embrace.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, scooping her up and depositing her in her closet. "Just stay out of trouble, okay?"

He ruffled her hair before walking away, shooting a worried glance over his shoulder as she slid the closet door closed behind him.

A few minutes later, she heard him leave, and sniffled again as she pulled the blankets up to her chin. Her eyes and nose were sore, as was her neck from lying in that awkward position on Gin-chan's lap for hours on end.

And, she thought with a pang, so was her heart.

"Humiliated" didn't even entirely match what she felt right now, as Kagura was certain there didn't exist a strong enough word in any language she knew of to describe it. But it was the closest thing she could think of, as the tight feeling in her abdomen was reminiscent of all the times the sadist had made her flush in embarrassment—only this time, it was an overwhelmingly negative emotion, and much, much worse.

His face appeared in her mind, the image of how he had looked at her in mean-spirited amusement right after she had practically spilled her guts to him, and the Yato couldn't hold back a second wave of tears.

Yes, "humiliated" was a good place to start in sorting out her emotions—but more than that, she felt betrayed. Her feelings for the sadist hadn't vanished—she knew it would take more than a night's worth of crying to rid herself of those—and his own intentions notwithstanding, she couldn't shake the hollowed-out sensation in her chest that resulted from how horribly he had crushed it underfoot. It didn't matter to Kagura that it had seemed as though he didn't believe her feelings were genuine, and that in his mind, they had both been doing the same thing. It didn't make a bit of difference that his goal was not to ruin her life.

She still felt utterly and completely _used_. Here she was, a dumb girl who had actually liked—no, loved—someone, who had given him a chance despite what an ass he was, who had even given him her virginity, and to him, such a thing didn't even matter. He happily had sex with her, had even enjoyed it, and Kagura mentally slapped herself for thinking that it had ever been about anything other than his own gratification in their never-ending fight against each other—at least for him. Over the course of the past three months, she had fallen in love with him, but he still thought of her as the same China girl he always fought with: nothing more, nothing less—only now, he knew about her feelings for him; there was no way he didn't, with how obvious she had been. She had practically screamed it at him, had even cried in front of him. It was far too late for her to go and pretend like nothing was wrong, and she certainly couldn't go and face him yet—maybe not ever.

Kagura pulled the blanket over her head and cried.

* * *

Sougo sauntered away in a slight daze after setting a towel down over the now-soaked carpet near his front door. He normally would have spent a few minutes washing away the accumulated mud, but at this point he was tired and really couldn't be bothered to give a shit. It wasn't like anyone would be coming to visit anytime soon—the China girl had been the only visitor he'd had since moving in, and it was safe to assume she wouldn't be back for a while.

 _If at all_ , he reminded himself.

The sandy-haired man sighed, both his body (especially his lower half) and mind exhausted from its earlier activities, and rubbed his eyes as he sauntered back to the part of the house that held his bedroom. He released a drawn-out yawn, only to go stiff when his eyes caught sight of the bathroom door that hung ajar at the end of the hall. The light was still on, and apart from that the shape and color of a recognizable hair ornament could be seen peeking out from beneath the crack in the door.

Sougo retrieved both of the fallen and partially trampled hair ornaments from the floor, giving them a once-over to make sure they weren't ruined before taking them back to his bedroom with him. He shut the door behind him harder than was necessary, deposited the hairpieces on his bedside table, and with an undignified grunt splayed out on the mattress. He closed his eyes, for once forgoing his eye mask, and waited for a welcome sleep to wash over him.

…And he waited.

…And waited.

He kept waiting, but no matter how persistently he clamped his eyes shut, sleep refused to come.

"Che."

He angrily grabbed one of the hair ornaments, glaring at it as though it were the avatar for its usual wearer. He was _not_ about to lose sleep over this! No matter how much his chest had tugged at him when he had watched China's desperate escape, or how much her tearful, distraught gaze had _somehow_ managed to get to him, Sougo would have been content with the knowledge that the both of them would be over this in a day or two.

 _Would_ have been…were it not for the fact that he couldn't stop replaying both what had just happened and the events of the past few months in his mind. Every time she had looked flustered at something he'd said, or sneakily got closer to him when they were hanging out (yes, he'd noticed)…had those truly all been _genuine_ reactions, as she'd insisted? Could he have honestly misjudged something like that, mistaken her sincere affection for deception?

Well…yeah. With how emotionally stunted he was, Sougo shouldn't have been surprised. But even so, how could he have misinterpreted her emotions _mid-coitus_? It wasn't like she—

"Shit," he muttered aloud, recalling their actions of the past two hours with vivid hindsight. How nervous she'd been (which he had chalked up to slight guilt on her part), how intensely she'd been staring at him (what he interpreted as a sign of devious thought behind her usually devious expressions), but most of all, now that he thought about it, how much she had acted like, like she…

…like she _loved_ him.

He remembered how she'd embraced him when he kissed her, her nails raking down his back in a way that she probably knew he enjoyed (despite not being a masochist himself). Sougo recalled distinctly how she had enthusiastically returned the favor, and had wrapped herself impossibly close around him like she didn't want to let go.

He remembered when he'd made that awful joke about screwing, and how instead of getting madder she had laughed and given him a kiss on the nose—that had actually caught him by surprise, but his mind had still refused to process it fully…

And then, when it was over, how she had clung to his arm and buried her face in his shoulder, her warm breath ghosting across his chest and raising goose bumps from his neck to his groin. And then…

" _I love you."_

She was the second person to ever tell him that she loved him—the first who wasn't a family member. Sougo had honestly doubted whether anyone but Mitsuba was capable of truly loving him, but after today…well, plain and simple, he didn't know what to think anymore aside from one thing:

He'd fucked up.

* * *

The next day saw him in a mood that hadn't improved much since the previous night, and Sougo was sure that everyone else at the Shinsengumi compound noticed it. All the officers under him took care in observing his daily dispositions, and this time around he could tell by their nerve-wracked sideways glances that he must have been emanating a more sinister presence than usual.

It pissed him off.

To the officers' dismay, Kondo-san, either oblivious to or in spite of the younger man's foul temperament, put him in charge of morning training, citing that Hijikata was too preoccupied with leftover paperwork to show up on time—though it was clear to Sougo that every single one of the men in the courtyard would have happily taken the demon Vice-Chief over him.

He started them off with five thousand sword swings.

* * *

"Faster, maggots."

The men's swords were already being swung as fast as was humanly possible, and the sadist grinned as sweat beaded down the anxious faces of each officer. He even saw one of the men in the back row sporting a bloody nose, the veins in his forehead strained in a way that suggested a possible future aneurysm.

Yamazaki, for all of his own blatant fear, was the only one to directly address the captain. "Captain Okita, are you sure this is necessary?! Maybe—maybe we could do some—"

"Oh? Is that an insubordinate tone I hear, Yamazaki?"

Yamazaki paled (impressive, given his beet-red complexion) and stuttered out a reply. "Uh, no! It's just—it's just that our arms are about to fall off, Captain—"

"That's enough, you guys."

Some of the men continued to swing their swords, though with far less enthusiasm once they heard the Vice-Chief's words. Sougo glared as his superior (technically) stepped onto the scene, looking groggy and tired as he took a lazy drag from his cigarette. "Take a break, all right? Especially you, Yamazaki."

The aforementioned man started to cry in gratitude (as did a fair amount of the other officers) before the group scattered, their muttering only starting up once they had gotten a safe distance away from their tormentor. Sougo, for his part, tried his hardest to make Hijikata burst into flames from the intensity of his gaze. "Ne, Hijikata-san, Kondo-san put me in charge of morning training. This is mutiny; I thought you had drowned in paperwork, anyway. Are you really an immortal demon?"

The Mayora ignored his jabs. "What are you doing, Sougo? Why are you taking your anger out on those guys?"

Sougo blinked. "Are you trying to give me a talk?"

"No, I'm just asking why you decided to torture all of them for no apparent reason. The Shinsengumi can't protect Edo if all of its members are exhausted. You wake up on the wrong side of the bed or something?"

"Che." He turned away, trying to hide his flushed expression. "That's none of your business, Hijibaka."

"…Did something happen with the Yorozuya girl?"

Sougo glared at the ground.

"…You know, you may hate my guts, but if it's bothering you this much, as your superior officer, I have a duty to make sure it stops interfering with your work life. So you should either tell me and get it off your chest, or just stop taking it out on the others. Your choice."

He almost couldn't believe what he was hearing…but then again, he sort of could. He remembered what he had thought last night, about how China's expression had reminded him of his sister's—namely after Hijikata had rejected her. If anyone could understand what he had done wrong, wouldn't it be him? No matter how much he loathed the idea of asking his enemy for advice, Sougo knew that he didn't really have a lot of options. It was either that or figure things out for himself—and he knew that if he went with the latter, he would probably end up escalating the situation.

"Fine," he muttered. "We had sex last night…for the first time. And…she said she loved me."

Hijikata raised a brow, but apart from that kept his face mercifully blank. "…And?"

He sighed. "…And then I told her that the entire time we'd been dating, I'd been pretending to like her."

It was only silent for a few seconds, but to Sougo they felt drawn out beyond belief. He tried to be patient, thinking that anyone would be shocked after hearing something so odd.

But before he could even open his mouth to clarify what he'd said, Sougo was forced to grit his teeth as Hijikata's fist slammed into his jaw. The shock was enough to send him flying, and as his ass hit the ground, the young man released an unceremonious grunt. He even saw stars for a moment, and as his tongue traced over his newly split lip, his head rattled with the realization that his superior had struck with the intent to do damage. He didn't even have time to get in a word of protest before Hijikata's burly scream assaulted his ears.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" the Mayora boomed, looming over Sougo with a crushed cigarette in one hand. "I always knew you were a sadist, but what the fuck, Sougo? What have you been smoking?"

Rushing to his own defense, he retorted, "Shut up! Like you're one to talk! It's not like I had an evil plan or anything. I thought we were just messing with each other the whole time—I didn't think she actually liked me before last night."

"Who does that sort of thing?! And also, how blind are you?! Anyone could see from a mile away that she was smitten with you, you idiot! I just assumed you were acting like a prick as usual, but I never thought you'd do something so messed up."

A cold feeling settled in Sougo's stomach, and he started to doubt himself. Was what he'd said to Kagura really that bad? "I—"

"Shut it with the excuses," Hijikata interrupted, idly lighting another cigarette. "Stop whining. I don't care if you didn't know she was being serious, you still fucked up big time. I don't want those guys to give us more trouble. You've got to fix this."

"Fix it? How do I—"

"Listen, Sougo," his superior said with a sigh, "I know better than anyone how much easier it is just to let the girl get over it herself and move on. She might even forgive you one day. But I can also tell from your face that that isn't what you want."

Against his will, Sougo stiffened, immediately setting his usual stoic mask back in place. "Really."

"You may not have even noticed it, but I know for a fact that what you told China was bullshit. Say whatever you want, but when the two of you were together you actually looked happier—I'd even go so far as to say it was the happiest you've been since Mitsuba passed." Sougo visibly deflated at that, and Hijikata's harsh mask softened a bit. "You really do like her, don't you?"

"…I…"

" _SOICHIIIIRO!_ "

"Yorozuya, wait! What are you doing here?!" Yamazaki's cry could be heard over the rapid movement of heeled boots.

 _That would be danna_ …

"Just in time," Hijikata observed sardonically, taking a step away from the scene just as another fist collided with Sougo's face.

Admittedly, this punch hurt a hell of a lot, but not as much as Hijikata's. Sougo attributed this to the silver-haired samurai's desire not to be slapped with a severe accusation of assault, seeing as he could have done more damage with his wooden sword.

Either that, or he just really wanted to harm him, slowly, with his own two hands.

"I'm gonna kill you, you brat!" Sougo heard the Yorozuya boss growl from above him. He spat a bit of blood into the dirt by way of response. "I hope the Shinsengumi's got great health care, cause I'm about to shove so much crap up your ass it'll take ten surgeries to remove!"

"Why his ass?!" Yamazaki yelled in the background.

Sougo sighed and sat back on his haunches.

"I can't say I blame you, Yorozuya," Hijikata intoned, "but I'm required to inform you that assaulting a police officer is extremely illegal, no matter how much of a prick they are towards the China girl."

"So he told you?!" The silver-perm reared on Hijikata, his hands balled into fists at his sides. "He told you what he did to her, and how devastated she was when she came back home last night?!"

That certainly got Sougo's attention, though he assumed as much based on her demeanor as she had been leaving his place. Still…though he didn't want to admit to it, it hurt to hear those assumptions confirmed and verbalized by the man closest to her. He didn't fight back when the Yorozuya boss grabbed the lapels of his uniform, pulling him partially to his feet so that their faces were a mere two inches apart.

"Do you realize how much you hurt her, you bastard?! Kagura didn't even get any sleep last night—and neither did I, by the way! All she did was sob all night long because of what you did—and yes, I know what you did," he said in response to the surprised look on Sougo's face. "There's only one thing you could do to a girl her age to make her cry like that."

Unable to hold the other man's gaze (though not because of guilt; Okita Sougo was still far too proud to admit the ache in his chest was because of that) he glanced to the side. Had she really spent the entire night crying over him? He felt a tugging at his heart, and it only grew worse when he recalled his spiteful distaste over his own lost sleep. "I didn't—"

"Spare me your excuses," Gintoki spat, releasing his jacket. Now freed, Sougo sank back down to his knees. "As much as I'd like to beat the crap out of you, I realized on the way here that it would only make Kagura feel worse. Consider that punch a wake-up call—and if you haven't apologized and groveled at her feet by the end of the week, I'll be sure to make the next one twenty—no, fifty—times as painful."

Sougo snickered, though on the inside he felt like dying. "I've got to say, _danna_ , even when your anger's aimed at me I still feel like rooting for you. You love China or something?"

The silver-perm clenched his fists, his mouth a thin, serious line. "Eh? What kind of question is that, brat? Of course I do."

Sougo just counted himself lucky that he escaped with his life.

* * *

Kagura woke up to the sensation of a hot tongue on her face. Furrowing her brows and releasing a groan, she burrowed deeper into the blanket.

"Not now, Sadaharu," she whined, feeling slightly guilty for turning her pet away. "I'm still tired."

The oversized dog barked in her ear and licked her again, as if to berate her.

"Ugh. Fine. You're hungry, right? I'll bet Gin-chan didn't feed you before he left."

Kagura got up and poured what little dog food they had left into Sadaharu's bowl, then went to sit on the couch; she rubbed her eyes and let out a yawn, grimacing at the stale taste in her mouth. _It must be because I slept with my mouth open_ , she thought. _My nose was all stuffed up from crying_ …

It was then that the events of yesterday hit her with grim totality, like a wrecking ball destroying a building. The backs of her eyes stung, but Kagura quickly shook her head in an attempt to chase away what she knew would only be a pointless repeat of impotent despair. _Today's a new day_ , she tried to remind herself, but her usual optimism fell so short of the mark that it might as well have been jumping over an abyss. With one leg. Still, she persevered. _I'm not going to let that idiot sadist ruin my life. So what if he's an insensitive prick? Even if I still…love him…I can just avoid him until I get over it. It's not like I ever have to talk to him again, either. I can pretend he doesn't exist if we ever run into each other on the job_.

She stood up, balling her hands into fists at her sides. _I can get through this, yep! I can't afford to let him win! I've already inconvenienced Gin-chan enough with all of this; I'll be stronger from now on! But first thing's first—I need to go buy some more sukonbu!_

Kagura tried to act enthused while she got dressed; she ignored the sting in her chest when she took off the _qipao_ she had never changed out of, soaking wet and stretched in odd places from the rain. Another blow was dealt when she found herself searching for her hair ornaments before she remembered that she had left them at the sadist's place in her haste to leave. Sighing in resignation, she settled with leaving her waist-length hair down.

She wished she could be as confident and collected as she pretended to be.

* * *

Her walk to the store was uneventful, and she even managed to crack a smile at the blushing cashier who was scanning her overstuffed basket of _sukonbu_.

"That's quite a lot you're buying, ma'am," the teenager observed with a joking grin. "You having a party?"

She returned his grin. "Just a party of one," she told him, happy enough to make conversation with a friendly stranger.

"Really? I find that hard to believe."

Kagura shrugged, suddenly feeling a bit saddened by Shinpachi and Gin-chan's absence. "Well, everyone's working today, so…"

"Ah, I get it. It's lonely without your husband around, huh?"

She flushed, shaking her head; her heart sank a bit at the assumption. "Oh, I'm not married! It's just that my boss gave me the day off, so…" She frowned; she couldn't seem to finish any of her sentences.

The boy smiled sheepishly at her. "Sorry about that! I just assumed you were, since—"

"You'd be wise not to finish that sentence, kid."

Said kid froze in fear when a sword materialized from behind Kagura, the tip gleaming from the overhead lights as it pointed at the unsuspecting boy's throat.

Kagura froze as well, though for a different reason; without even turning around, the redhead knew whose sword that was. It belonged to the same voice that had taunted her, rejected her, and played her for a fool—and that voice, the voice that she loved, would never leave her head.

Her heart leapt to her throat.

* * *

He hadn't been able to stop himself from following when he saw her leave the Yorozuya. He knew he wasn't supposed to, knew that he shouldn't, as according to _danna_ it would only make her feel worse to see him after practically no time had passed. Hell, he wasn't even supposed to be in that area, but had "accidentally" gone off course from his assigned patrol in Kabuki-cho.

It went without saying that Sougo was infamous for doing things that he shouldn't have—which he assumed was how he ended up there in the supermarket, pointing his sword at the throat of a civilian who had dared to so much as _look_ like he was flirting with the female Yato. He normally didn't have such a short fuse, but his composure tended to be shot to hell whenever she was involved.

"You'd be wise not to finish that sentence, kid," he said coolly.

The cashier looked about ready to piss himself, but he managed to choke out one word. "Uh—sorry?"

"You'd better be. Don't you know it's rude to ask a woman if she's married?"

While the boy struggled to force out a hasty and apologetic reply, Sougo's eyes shifted to the redhead. Before he even realized she had moved, she brushed past him without meeting his eyes and headed for the exit, her basket of snacks forgotten.

"Oi, China, wait!" he called, managing to stop himself from grabbing her arm as he gave chase. "Kagura!" He cursed when she continued to ignore him, and picked up his pace.

He caught up with her by the time they made it outside, but before she could sprint away, the sandy-haired man grabbed her wrist.

"Wait a second!" he demanded, breathless at the fact that he had finally succeeded in catching her. "Let me ex—"

" _Let go of me_!"

Her voice was a harsh whisper, but it still shocked him to hear it so full of venom; he let go. She didn't face him, and her back and shoulders were tense. After a few seconds of painfully awkward silence, he said, "…China?"

She jumped at the familiar nickname, and Sougo himself went utterly still when she craned her neck to look over her shoulder. Yet again, he found his mind devoid of a response when Kagura glanced at him with tear-filled eyes. His jaw hung slack, and he felt a twinge in it when her lips curled into what he recognized as a pre-crying expression.

"Leave me alone."

Though a part of him desperately wanted to, Sougo didn't stop her when she ran away.

* * *

She didn't understand. Why couldn't he see that his presence was really, truly hurting her? Did he value winning their rivalry so much that he didn't care how much pain he caused the people around him? At this point, he was only rubbing salt into the fresh wound he'd given her.

Kagura knew he was a sadist; the nickname she called him by wasn't bestowed on him for nothing. But…no matter what nasty tricks he pulled, no matter how far he crossed the line in what he did to her, she had always thought Sougo had a limit. She wasn't sure what she thought he would do afterwards, but she _hadn't_ thought he would turn around so soon after it happened and continue to torment her by pretending to care.

She felt her heart crack a little more in her chest, but she wiped the tears away before anyone could see.

She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of beating her.

* * *

 _A few days later_ …

* * *

He was starting to lose his mind.

It was ironic; he almost couldn't believe how wrong he had been in his initial assumption—it had been more than two days, and Sougo still couldn't get the China girl out of his head. He wondered how he could have misjudged things so horribly, and though it pained him to admit it, he had to chalk it up to his own selfishness. He already knew he was self-centered; he didn't care much for other people's feelings, and even when he did know how they felt he was more inclined to torment them with the knowledge.

China was another matter—but it hadn't been that way at first. He'd never had a problem torturing her before, and even now he longed (though he cringed at the use of that word) for the days when they were constantly at each other's throats, seeking to screw each other over in one way or another.

This was something else. In hindsight, he probably should have realized that messing around with someone's heart was different than messing with their head or beating them up. If what Hijikata said was true, then Kagura might forgive him, but she would certainly never see him the same way again.

He wasn't sure why that prospect bothered him so much, though he reasoned it may have to do with something else that the mayonnaise addict told him: that, regardless of whether or not he noticed it, Sougo actually _liked_ the violent gluttonous redhead—and not just as a sparring partner.

He groaned, flopping down on his bed and eyeing the hair ornaments that still sat on his bedside table. He picked one up, rolling it around in his palm before giving it a light sniff out of curiosity; it still smelled like her.

Sougo knew that he couldn't just leave things the way they were.

He decided to try again.

* * *

The next time she saw him, Kagura was out on a job: some old guy with two broken legs hired them to deliver his packages from the post office. The small building was on a hill, and apparently the guy didn't feel like fighting a literal uphill battle with his wheelchair. She really didn't mind being the one to carry the weight of this job; it was easy, and she was even starting to cry less than she had been a few days ago.

Of course, that didn't mean the pain was gone.

She was only a block away from her goal when she caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye. Despite all the progress she had made in ignoring him, Kagura still felt herself stiffen when she saw his familiar sandy hair, those red eyes and the unmistakable colors of the Shinsengumi uniform.

Not having much hope in the possibility that he hadn't seen her (hell, he had probably followed her there to begin with, the damn sadist), she kept her eyes forward and marched ahead.

"China."

She wouldn't let him get to her; she refused to let him interfere with her daily routine.

" _Chiiina_."

There was _not_ a lump in her throat, and those were _not_ tears of frustration in her eyes.

She tried to stomp past him even when he stepped in front of her, but no matter which way she turned he blocked her path. "Kagura," he said flatly.

Finally, she stopped, but kept her gaze level as her watery eyes met his. "Why can't you just leave me alone, you stupid sadist?!" she hissed. "Haven't you done enough already…?" There was a noticeable hitch in her voice, and she saw him raise a brow. The mischievous gleam in his eye vanished, a fact which somewhat surprised her. Was he…was he feeling _guilty_? Kagura was more inclined to believe that her eyes were playing tricks on her than that the sadist was actually feeling _bad_ for what he'd done.

Before she could ask, he held his hands out to her, and when she saw what was in them Kagura's own eyes widened in surprise. There, looking as pristine as always (though that wasn't saying much), were her hair ornaments.

"Sorry," he said matter-of-factly. "I…uh, I've had these for a few days, and I thought I'd give them back to you. You don't quite look like the same idiot without them, China."

As she listened to his words, Kagura felt tears brim at the corners of her eyes—but not because he'd called her an idiot. She was used to that sort of treatment from him. No, it was because the way he was acting was actually _nice_ —or, at least, nicer than he usually was. It reminded her of how he'd been acting while they were "dating," when he had antagonized her but in a playful way—and, of course, when he had occasionally done things she would even class as affectionate by his standards.

And it _hurt_. It hurt to recall those brief moments of happiness, almost as much as it hurt to have him say they were all faked.

"Why…" she whispered, nearly flinching at his bewildered expression, "…why are you doing this?"

His mouth hung open, but before he had a chance to respond she all but ripped the hair ornaments from his grasp.

"You're a bastard!" she yelled, hurriedly wiping away an escaped tear. "What, are you trying to make me look stupid again, huh?"

He reached out a hand to her, his expression looking almost panicked, but she backed away with a disgusted look on her face. "China—"

"I don't wanna hear it!"

She darted past him without looking back.

* * *

"I'm not surprised she reacted that way," Hijikata told him when he got back to the Shinsengumi compound and relayed his story. The Mayora exhaled, and Sougo's eye twitched when the smoke from his cigarette wafted into his face. "She probably thought you were making fun of her. Can't blame her for being paranoid. Man, only one conversation and you've somehow made the situation worse. Yorozuya might just murder you at this rate."

He hated sounding desperate, but was at a loss of what he could do to rectify the situation. "So what do I do?"

The Mayora took another hit. "Try harder."

* * *

' _Try harder.' What the hell does that mean, Hijibaka?_

Sougo frowned as he lied in bed and pondered the Vice-Chief's words. For God's sake, he felt as though he'd been driving himself crazy already, and somehow his apology earlier wasn't enough?

…Granted, it might have been a shoddy excuse for making amends, but Kagura should have known he wouldn't be any good at doing so in the first place. And yeah, it might not have seemed sincere, but he was still getting used to whatever the hell he'd been feeling lately. He wasn't good at showing her his true emotions—and obviously, he never had been. He could hardly even accept them himself.

So how on Earth was he supposed to communicate to the China girl that he was sorry, and that he actually… _liked_ her? Even the thought of it was enough to make him grind his teeth and for his cheeks to heat in a way that made the sadist feel positively sick. It would probably do the same to her, especially after what he'd said when she confessed. He doubted she'd give him another chance, though at this point he would make do with just her forgiveness.

He glanced to the side, read the glowing green numbers on his alarm clock. _2:07. I should really get some sleep._

He tried, he really did, but his restless stupor was punctuated by bouts of sporadic guilt and anxiety that kept him tossing and turning above the sheets. The images behind his eyelids were mostly of her, of how she had looked while they were together (happy) and then, before he had time to savor those memories, how she had looked a few nights ago (shocked, betrayed, distraught). He wasn't sure if she was still suffering that way back at her room in the Yorozuya, but he tried to banish that thought as soon as it arrived. After a few minutes, he couldn't stomach it any longer, and his eyes snapped open to stare blankly into the dark. This might have contented him as punishment, if it weren't for the leftover imprints of those memories blinking across his vision.

 _Screw this_.

Sougo got up and hastily threw on his Shinsengumi jacket. Then, without much thought, he proceeded to run out of his room, out the front door, and, as soon as he got onto the sidewalk, at full speed toward the current bane of his existence.

He arrived at the Yorozuya in record time, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he attempted to suck in precious air. He glanced up at the building's second floor, but saw no sign of life aside from the smallest pinprick of light through the shoji door.

 _Oh, well. Someone's up, at least_.

He grabbed a medium-sized rock from the ground, and took careful aim with one eye closed before chucking it toward the light source. It ricocheted off the door and wooden balcony before falling back down to the ground below, and Sougo clicked his tongue in annoyance before grabbing a larger one.

This time, it went straight through the door and landed inside with an audible crash, and a part of him snickered internally at the muffled feminine cursing he heard in response. Before he even had time to wipe the slight grin off his face, the shoji door slid open, and the sight of an unkempt and irate female Yato greeted him.

"What the hell?" she muttered, glancing up and down the dark street.

Before she noticed him, Sougo took the time to be caught off guard by her state of dress: she was still dressed in her day clothes, and he felt a swell of pride when he saw that despite her angry words earlier, she had put her hair back in the ornaments he returned.

That pride vanished at record speed when she saw him.

"What the hell?!" she repeated, louder this time and ten times as virulent. "Why are you here so late, sadist? You following in your gorilla's footsteps now, huh? Gonna become a stalker?"

He was about to provide a sarcastic retort, but stopped himself when he remembered why he had come here. He had only one thing in mind; he couldn't afford to fuck this up again, and he was already treading on thin ice by coming here so late at night. As he drew in a deep breath, gathering the courage to say what he needed to, Hijikata's words once again reverberated in his skull.

 _Try harder_.

"I meant it, China."

She stared quizzically at him, looking as though she would rather be anywhere but here. "Meant what, sadist?"

He sighed, scratching the back of his neck. Why did talking to her like a normal person have to be so difficult? "Earlier, when I said I was sorry…I meant it." _Dammit, I sound way too cheesy. There's no way she'll buy this crap, even if I'm being serious_. "Sorry about hurting your feelings and stuff."

Her frown deepened, and he inwardly cursed. "You did more than that, y'know." She said it so quietly he almost couldn't hear her from this distance. "And I thought I told you to leave me alone."

"I can't," he forced out through clenched teeth. "It's annoying, but my conscience won't let me."

"Conscience? Ha! Since when did you have one of those?" Kagura's laugh was bitter, and laced with venom. "You laughed in my face when I told you that I…well, yeah. You made me think you really gave a crap and then did the worst thing you could possibly do, you damn sadist. Who does that?!"

 _An asshole_. "I know," he concurred. "You probably hate me, right? I know _danna_ does."

She stared daggers at him, but didn't respond.

He sighed, took a deep breath—and then, Okita Sougo did something that nearly tore the fabric of the universe. Surely pigs must have been flying, and soon enough the entire sky would come falling down and crush Edo. Maybe even Gintoki would pay his rent, because anyone who knew a thing about the young captain of the Shinsengumi would have balked at the sight of him getting on his knees and bowing before the redhead.

 _Anyone who sees me doing this will die a painful death_. He couldn't see Kagura's expression with his head touching the dirt, but he was sure she looked as dumbstruck as he felt. After all, he'd only ever gotten down on his knees out of respect for his sister, and the female Amanto had never seen him do it. "China—Kagura," he began, his throat tight, "I'd like to apologize for my actions. I shouldn't have said I was trying to win our rivalry by tricking you into thinking I liked you, and just so you know, I've already gotten beat up by two different people for doing it. I realized right after it happened that I'd gone too far, but I'm being honest when I say that I really had no idea what you felt was genuine until afterwards. That's not an excuse."

He chanced a glance upwards, saw her looking at him with wide blue eyes. He returned his gaze to the ground.

"And…and I…" Suddenly the words were glued to the inside of his throat, stuck there by his resistance to seeming out of character. Emotional openness really wasn't his forte. "…I feel the same way about you." His body sagged in relief, glad that he had at least managed to choke them out.

He stiffened but didn't move when he heard small feet descend the wooden stairs and approach him.

"You…" He wasn't sure, but he thought he heard her voice hitch. He allowed his hopes to be raised, thinking that he had finally managed to convey his thoughts to her, and—

"You _dumbass_!"

A foot to the back of his head caused his face to smash painfully into the ground, and he inhaled dirt and rocks in his surprise. _I shouldn't be_ , he thought as he pushed himself back to his feet, spitting gravel all over the ground. _She's still the same violent brute as ever, even if I broke her heart_. "What the hell, China?!"

Though her eyes were teary, Kagura still managed to appear threatening. " _Me_? What do you think you're saying?"

"Uh…the truth?"

"As if I'd believe that so easily! First you tell me you like me, then you say you don't after we do the nasty—"

"Why do you have to call it that?"

"—and now you're telling me you like me again?! Do you think I'm stupid, huh? Just because you're actually being humble for once in your life doesn't mean I'll trust you like an idiot again! You don't care about—"

She went still when he kissed her, and Sougo silently prayed that it wouldn't be a prelude to a knee in his groin. It was only a peck on the lips, and it lasted barely a second, but when he pulled away he saw her flushed and wide-eyed like the first time it had happened.

He grinned. "Yes, I do. I do care. It may not have seemed like it, and I didn't even notice it myself until Hijikata-san pointed it out, but I had fun with you while we were together—and more than in a friends or rivals way. I mean, I'm hardly a healthy emotional specimen, so I'm actually surprised you didn't dump me sooner." The redhead stared, still silent, as he backed away. "But I'm kind of glad, because if you had dumped me I probably never would have realized it, so…thanks."

She blinked once, then twice, and Sougo felt the atmosphere grow more awkward as time dragged on.

"…See you around, China. Give _danna_ and the four-eyes my regards. Also, if you tell anyone I got on my knees for you, I'll slit your throat." He sent her a wave as he walked away, and the sandy-haired man frowned as he felt his heart sink. _This is fine. Even if she hates me…at least I apologized. I did the right thing…right?_

"Sadist."

He was surprised to see her right behind him when he turned around, the tiniest of smiles gracing her pale features. He raised a brow at her. Could she be…?

"I didn't realize you could grow a heart," she observed in a perfect deadpan. "It almost makes me want to believe you."

"But…?"

He stood stock-still when she reached up and lightly slapped his cheek. "But you're still an idiot, and I'm still pissed off at you, so you'd have to go through a trial period before I decide whether to forgive you or not—also, you have to tell Gin-chan that you apologized and begged for my forgiveness, because the only reason he hasn't killed you yet is because I told him not to. And you have to be nice. No kissing. Also—"

" _OI! YOU DAMN BRATS, YOU'RE KEEPING ME UP ALL NIGHT! A MAN NEEDS HIS BEAUTY SLEEP_!"

The silver-perm's roar could have woken the dead, and if it weren't for the young woman next to him Sougo would have hightailed it out of there. But as it was, he simply stood beside the giggling redhead, marveling not only at how she was actually _smiling_ again after days of constant depression, but at how unbelievably lucky he felt to have won some measure of her favor. Even if he knew he didn't deserve it, he finally understood how to appreciate a good thing when he found it.

"Sorry," she said, rolling her eyes and shooting him a snarky look. "I've gotta go inside before Gin-chan comes out here and kills the both of us."

"You mean just me, right?"

With a casual shrug, Kagura winked at him. "Hard to say. He's been in a pretty foul mood lately."

"I can see why. You've been sitting awake all night with the lights on. What's up with that, anyway?"

She blushed. "If you've gotta know, _sadist_ , it's because I was thinking about you and your confusing behavior. Anyway, make sure you fulfill all my terms, okay?"

He sent her a lopsided grin. "Well, they're a bit excessive, _China_ , but I think I can manage. It's a small price to pay for not getting pummeled to death by you and _danna_."

"Who said anything about me not pummeling you?" The coy grin she sent his way made him stiffen in more ways than one, and he silently wondered if he was becoming a masochist for her. (He wasn't even sure that he would mind.) "Now go home, sadist, and sleep well, huh! Try not to think about me all night!"

She ran the short distance back to the Yorozuya, leaving Sougo to stand in the middle of the road and contemplate following the second half of her advice.

(In the end, he didn't.)

* * *

 **I hope you liked the ending. I wanted to leave something to the imagination, because to me that's more fun. I'm thinking a future one-shot about Sougo's quest to prove himself would make for some laughs. I guess we'll see. Either way, thanks for reading!**

— **Vicious Ventriloquist**


	3. Part III

**Author's Note: Surprise! I finally made that third part I was talking about! I hope you guys like it, and I apologize for any OOCness you may find.**

* * *

 **Part III: You Can't Trust A Woman In Red**

"Are you seriously expecting me to do this, China?"

"Why else would I have asked you to do it, idiot?"

"Just to see if I said yes. Any other woman would think that the fact that I'm willing to should give me some credit. You must be out of your mind."

"You're obviously not willing, if you're trying to get out of it."

"I'm not trying to get out of it."

"Yes you are! You're a liar! A big liar! What was all that just now, then, huh?!"

"I was just testing you. Trying to gauge your thoughts and all that."

"What's there to gouge?!"

Ignoring her mispronunciation, Sougo sent the girl a noncommittal glance. "Not sure. But you know what they say—you can't trust a woman in red. She's probably hiding her true thoughts."

"Who says that?"

" _Danna_."

Kagura sighed and crossed her arms. "Stupid Gin-chan, meddling in my affairs…"

Sougo raised a brow at that, but decided not to press the issue seeing as how he sank deeper into hot water with every syllable that wrenched its way out of his mouth. He was supposed to be on his best behavior, but over the course of the past few days he had become increasingly aware of how much he sucked ass at being what Kagura considered a "good boyfriend"—the term still felt like acid on his tongue, especially considering that he was acting more like a slave. She had been what anyone else would consider gracious by offering him a chance to earn her forgiveness—at least, he had thought so at the time. Even he had half-believed that his apology would end in brutality and a trip to the hospital, and was shocked (and yes, relieved; he had no choice but to admit it at this point) when instead he was offered a second chance.

However, the more he tried to fulfill her "terms," as she had referred to them, the more Sougo suspected that his trial period would enact a unique type of brutality unto him instead. At first it hadn't been so bad, with the redhead asking him to walk her home when he had time off after work and to bring her food at her request on his breaks—things that felt odd and cheesy to the sadist, but which he was more than willing to put up with for the sake of his dumb conscience and the girl he reluctantly admitted to liking.

The following two weeks, which had led to his current predicament, were what showed him the true nature of this "trial period." He got his first clue when they had been hanging out at the local park. While the female Amanto had been ravenously devouring the food he had brought her (at no cost to her, he might add) he had watched, torn between being impressed and slightly disgusted by her otherworldly appetite. When she had finished coughing up the plastic sandwich wrapper she accidentally swallowed, she had turned to him with a sugary-sweet smile (never a good sign, nowadays) and asked him for a favor.

"What is it?" he had asked, paranoid (with good reason).

"We got a job request for today, so Shinpachi doesn't have any time to take care of my laundry. Also, I don't have any money for the Laundromat. You've got a washing machine at the Shinsengumi compound, right?" She had then looked expectantly at him, as though daring him to refuse her.

Aghast at her request, it had taken the sandy-haired man a few moments to answer. "Are you kidding me, China? I'm not your personal slave. Do your own damn laundry."

"Ehhhh? But what about your promise? You're supposed to be a good boyfriend, sadist! A good boyfriend would do his lady's laundry when she's working, huh."

A vein had throbbed in his forehead. "Don't try to pull that crap with me, China. You're just lazy."

"Fine," she had said. "Then I won't tell you to—I'll ask you nicely. Would you _please_ do me a favor and take care of my laundry, sadist?" She had looked at him with clasped hands, milking her huge blue eyes for all their worth with her pleading expression.

As he stared at the redhead, Sougo had sighed in defeat. Though he would have normally scoffed at her, it really hadn't seemed like she was asking for much. And it wasn't as though she had that many clothes, either. "…Just this once, China. And don't you dare go telling anyone. I don't want people to think I'm turning into a housewife."

While Kagura had hugged him in glee, Sougo had been reassuring himself with the knowledge that she trusted him enough to let him handle her clothes, including, possibly, her undergarments. If it were her clothes he would be handling, at least it wouldn't be so bad.

How wrong he had turned out to be when, not thirty minutes later, he found himself lugging a sack of clothing larger than his own body.

 _There's no way she has this much! I've only ever seen her wear four different outfits! What the hell's in here?!_

He had nearly imploded with rage upon returning to the Shinsengumi compound and opening the bag, only to find a heap of clothes belonging, in unequal parts, to both the China girl and the Yorozuya boss.

 _These are mostly danna's clothes!_ He had fumed silently at the young woman's trickery, his lip curling in disgust at the mystery stains he could see on the samurai's undergarments. _And what the hell is that?!_

After that, his suffering had only grown: _Sadist, will you drive the three of us across town? There's a client who requested we help rebuild his store, huh._

 _Sadist, can you go buy me some sukonbu? I'm lying in bed and I don't want to move._

 _Sadist, can you please wash my feet?_

The ridiculous requests had continued, each one offering a new wave of humiliation for the young man, but which he somehow ended up performing anyway regardless of his attempts to refuse her. He found his own willpower to resist slackening day by day, while his eagerness for the end of his trial period grew exponentially every time he was forced to demean himself further, even if no one else knew about it.

But _this_? What she was currently asking of him went too far—and not only that, it carried with it the extremely large risk of someone he knew finding out about his situation.

"Come _on_ ," Kagura sighed, retrieving and handing him the megaphone that was in the backseat of the car they were currently in. Oh, he had nearly forgotten to add another item to the list of outrageous requests—that her current plan involved a gross misuse of a government-sanctioned vehicle. Well, Sougo normally wouldn't have had a problem with that—if it benefitted _him_ , of course. "All you have to do is drive and say the line I told you using this thing, huh. And make sure the window's rolled down, too."

He wondered for a moment who the sadist in their relationship really was. "No dice, China. This goes beyond a favor. Aren't you just trying to humiliate me?"

"Nu-uh," she shook her head. "I'm just trying to get you to prove that you were telling the truth. If you really care about me you'll be able to do this, no problem, without worrying about what people think, huh. Or are you too chicken?" Her evil grin made him glare, and his hand tightened on both the steering wheel and megaphone.

He was going to make her pay for this.

Sougo started the car and rolled down the window, holding the megaphone up to his face so as to conceal his identity as much as possible. As he drove down the street, he saw the redhead duck down in the passenger seat and cover her mouth to hide her grin as he repeated the line she had told him.

" _Kagura-san is the most beautiful woman in Kabuki-cho_ ," he said into the megaphone, flinching at the magnified volume. His face burned when several pedestrians glanced towards the moving car, with both incredulous and amused faces that made him want to murder them on the spot. _On the other hand, seppuku's sounding pretty good right about now._

"Louder," the girl beside him whispered.

Sougo resisted the urge to shove the megaphone down her throat, and forced the cheesy line through clenched teeth. " _Kagura-san is the most beautiful woman in Kabuki-cho_!"

"Better, uh-huh."

This continued until Kagura deemed it acceptable for him to stop, and by that time he was feeling fairly numb after repeating the line what felt like thousands of times. Surely all of Kabuki-cho had heard him by now; he'd have to wait a few hours before returning to the Shinsengumi compound. Even then, he would have to resist the temptation to hang his head in shame.

If anyone mentioned it, he wasn't sure he'd be able to stop himself from snapping the person's neck.

* * *

By the next morning everyone in the Shinsengumi had heard about the member who paraded around Kabuki-cho, proclaiming his love for the female member of the Yorozuya. It was all Sougo could do to not murder them all.

 _"I heard it was Captain Okita."_

 _"Are you kidding me? That can't be true. He's too…ya know."_

 _"Yeah, but they were dating before, weren't they? It seems like they broke up. Maybe he was trying to get her back."_

 _"He wouldn't go that far…would he?"_

 _"I dunno. Maybe he's whipped."_

 _"I heard they got back together. If that's true, then he's definitely whipped."_

 _"Not the captain! He'd never let a woman control him."_

 _"Yeah, but she's not just any woman. She's a Yato, right? Maybe she's too much even for the captain to handle…"_

Every speculative conversation he overheard was worse than the last, and barring a sideways glare and thinly veiled threat, there was nothing he could do about it without having to answer to Kondo-san—and, of course, the clueless man would want to know what had happened. Sougo didn't much feel like degrading himself in front of one of the only men he respected. So, while everyone else was in the mess hall, he retreated to the training grounds for some much-needed solitude.

Training was a welcome distraction from his bruising humiliation, but it only lasted so long before he found himself reclining against the wall of the compound. Sighing, he wondered if he shouldn't just put his foot down and tell the redhead off. He knew that, on some level, he deserved what he was getting, knew that he had done his share in humiliating Kagura with his actions and words towards her. This was really the only thing stopping him from cursing her out and reclaiming his pride. He was aware that she felt she was enacting her own version of justice, and in a sick twisted way Sougo even admired her for it. She was every bit as sadistic as he was, though with more boundaries.

At least, he had thought so in the beginning. He wasn't sure how much longer this trial period would go on for, but he hoped it would end soon. Would she drag it out until he snapped? Or would she see his genuine empathy and end his torment before then?

The only thing he was sure of regarding the situation was that he wanted things to go back to normal—back to the way they were when they were dating, but this time with certainty of his feelings. A lesser man would have lost his marbles long before now, would have written her off as a lost cause and sought out an easier conquest.

Not Okita Sougo. Even if he wanted to strangle her (and not in a kinky way, though that mental image was also appealing) he knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the China girl was the only woman in Edo—hell, maybe even the whole universe—he would ever actually like in _that way_. She was the only girl that fought him tooth and nail, physically and verbally, and who genuinely liked him—loved him—for it. For all of the times they butted heads, he knew she still had faith in him. He knew she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

But even so…his poor, poor pride…

"Captain Okita!"

Upon seeing a breathless Yamazaki approach him with a folded piece of paper clenched in his fist, Sougo raised a brow. "What is it, Yamazaki?" he said lazily. "I'm a little busy right now."

"But aren't you just standing—never mind," the nervous man quickly said. He held out the crumpled page. "I was told to give this to you immediately. It's from the Yorozuya girl."

"What?" He snatched it away, but sent Yamazaki a wary glance. "Why couldn't she give it to me herself?"

He shrugged. "Not sure. I guess she was in a hurry and saw me standing near the gate. But she said it was urgent. She also told me to tell you something weird—I think it was something like: 'if you do this right, then you pass.' What's she talking about, Captain—uh, if you don't mind my asking?"

"I do. Get lost."

"Huh?!"

A quick draw of his sword was enough to send Yamazaki running for the hills; after he was gone, Sougo fingered the folded paper with curiosity. _So, if I do this right, then it's over? Things can go back to normal?_ The prospect both excited him and gave him pause. Judging from the strange circumstances so far, his final test would be something abjectly horrific.

Undeterred, the sandy-haired man unfolded the page, only to see an envelope taped to the inside. It was fairly thick and sealed shut, but underneath it there was a brief paragraph written with the girl's familiar chicken-scratch. Squinting slightly, he began to read.

 _There's a Otsu consert in Kabuki-cho tonite. If you wanna get back together, go their and reed what's in the inveloap on-stage in front of everyone. Don't opin it before. I'll no if you did. I'll be their watching, sadist._

He blanched at the thought of attempting to read aloud something so surely riddled with spelling errors (that, he might add, were most likely done on purpose). He could barely even decipher her note. And in front of an audience, nonetheless? Was she insane? No doubt she had written something humiliating; he didn't even want to think about it. He considered opening the envelope and reading it despite her warning, doubtful as to whether or not she'd really be able to tell—that is, unless she put something in the letter that would tell her if it were opened. He didn't know if that were possible, but he decided not to press his luck.

On the other hand, what would happen if he refused to do it? Would she dump him? Would she continue trying to torment him?

 _If you wanna get back together… So if I don't do it, that's the end of it? No more second chance?_ It didn't seem fair, but then again, when had either of them been known for that? She was intentionally putting him between a rock and a hard place, testing his dedication to his redemption. This much was obvious. The kicker was that he couldn't tell if she were bluffing or not. Kagura had seemed willing to give him a second chance, so would she really write him out of her life if he refused to do this? Was her pride as a woman that great? Not only that, would _his_ pride allow him to go through with it?

There was only one way to find out.

* * *

Sougo had never been one for pop idols, and it seemed Otsu, regardless of her wild lyrics, was no exception. Then again, that could just as easily have been due to nerves, seeing as he spent the entire concert in anticipation of giving his impromptu speech after strong-arming his way through security in lieu of buying a ticket. He also spent much of it looking for Kagura, his eyes roaming over the crowd of energetic fanboys in search of one with vermillion hair.

He had no such luck in finding her.

" _All right, everyone_!" the purple-haired young woman said enthusiastically into the microphone. " _There's time for one more song, so everyone sing with me, okay?!_ "

A chorus of cheers answered her, and she launched into her final performance for the night, an ear-splitting, crowd-sung version of "Your Mother Is An XXX."

Sougo sighed in defeat and began making his way towards the stage, though he still kept his eyes peeled for any signs of the female Amanto. The closer he got, the stronger the urge to run away became, but he steeled his nerves and tightened his jaw, planting one foot in front of the other with an admirable level of resolve. He arrived at the front of the crowd just as Otsu finished her final song, and the concert hall filled with a roar of applause. He allowed the idol a few moments of waving and bowing to her fans before rudely pushing past one of the security guards who blocked access to the stage.

"Hey!" the burly man objected, his hand barely ghosting over Sougo's arm before he keeled over, the wind knocked out of him by the hilt of the other man's sword.

"Don't try to stop me," he said to the other guards, who stared in shock as the sandy-haired man hefted his way onto the stage. "I'm a cop, you see." He stood up, brushing off his uniform and trying to avoid looking out at the sea of faces. Instead, he walked over to where Otsu was still waving at her fans, and tapped her on the shoulder. "Excuse me, miss—can I borrow your microphone for a second?"

"Hey, you can't be up here!" Several other security guards made their way onto the stage. "It doesn't matter if you're a cop, buddy, you can't just do as you please!"

The idol looked quizzically at Sougo and held up a hand; at her signal, the security guards stopped approaching, held back by the invisible strings of pop idol prestige.

"What are you going to do-mouse scrotum?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Well, my girlfriend's in the audience. She's a huge fan of yours, so I thought this would be the perfect place to ask her out on a date," he lied.

As he had expected, he saw Otsu's eyes light up, and she clapped her hands together in unrestrained glee. "How romantic! Of course you can-death parade!" With that, she handed him the microphone and started waving the security guards off the stage, sending Sougo a sly wink before standing off to the side. He would have rolled his eyes if it weren't for the fact that he suddenly realized he was alone on stage with hundreds, if not thousands, of people staring up at him in confusion.

He walked to the center of the stage, placing the microphone back into its rightful stand before clearing his throat and hearing it echo across the hall. He fingered the sealed envelope in his pocket and pulled it out, slipping his index finger beneath the flap. _Here goes nothing_.

And then, out of nowhere, he saw her.

She was standing fairly close to the stage, her hair partially hidden by a brown headscarf, but there was no mistaking who it was. Kagura stared up at him expectantly, a small, devious smile playing across her lips, and Sougo felt his eyebrow twitch in anger. She really was enjoying this, wasn't she—making a fool out of him? He already knew it to be true, but having him do demeaning things and having him do _publicly_ demeaning things while she watched in amusement were very different. His pride was going to suffer greatly if he opened that letter and read it out loud—a part of him even wondered if he would have any pride left to speak of by the end of the night. Even if she forgave him and they got back together, he'd never be able to look certain people in the eye again without wanting to murder them for what they had witnessed him do—because surely this whole ordeal would be recorded and uploaded all over the internet for everyone to see.

For the second time, he wondered if he would even be able to go through with this once he opened the envelope.

 _Can I really do this?_ He eyed the redhead again, and what he saw on her face this time gave him pause.

This time, her smile wasn't full of amusement—it was just a small upward quirk of the lips, a tiny grin that he had seen on her face many times while they were together. It was an honest smile, a smile that told him she would be happy with whatever he did next, no matter how embarrassing or crude.

It was a smile that said she still loved him.

And that's when Okita Sougo realized something. It wasn't a matter of being too proud to make a fool of himself—it was a matter of being proud enough to go and make a fool of himself for the girl he loved. Nothing she wrote in that letter could possibly be enough to make her stop loving him if he said it out loud, and he knew that the same was true on his end.

It didn't matter what she'd written—they weren't his words. If he truly wanted to show her he loved her, Sougo knew he had to use his own words. No amount of ass kissing or servitude would tell her how he really felt; he had to prove it to her of his own agency, in his own way, even if he had to put his dignity on the line.

And, he realized, that's what she had been trying to show him all along.

So, without further ado, Sougo held up the envelope with one hand—and shoved it back in his pocket.

"I've got something to say," he said loudly into the microphone, his voice reverberating strongly throughout the hall, "and China girl, you'd better listen."

He heard the quiet whispers throughout the audience, rippling like waves as they wondered what the hell this random guy was doing on stage—and, Sougo found, he didn't give a damn. The only person he cared about was watching him silently, that same pristine smile not leaving her face.

"I don't give a damn if I make an ass out of myself," he continued. "And frankly, I don't give a damn if me not reading the letter pisses you off. All I'm going to say is one thing." He swallowed, clearing his throat before deafening the entire concert hall with his next words.

"I LOVE YOU, YOU MORON!"

For a moment, all he could hear were the echoes of his own words, rattling around in his brain like a catchy song. Everyone else in the room was deathly silent, not a sound escaping their mouths. His eyes roamed the hall in search of a reaction, and his breath caught when he found Kagura's gaze.

This time, her eyes were sparkling, replete with what he could only describe as pure happiness—and was that admiration? He hardly thought he'd said anything revolutionary, but he supposed a confession of actual love was quite out of character for him.

"And, I guess I'd like to ask you out on a date or something," he finished, scratching the back of his neck.

She didn't say anything for a while, just stared at him with that same dopey grin. Thinking that the atmosphere had turned suddenly awkward, Sougo turned to walk off the stage, but before he could reach the stairs, he heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, sadist!"

He turned, saw Kagura standing on some poor schmuck's shoulders, and the sight pulled up the corners of his mouth. It begrudged him to admit it, but she could be quite charming at times.

"About the date…no thanks!"

Then again, she could also be quite demonic.

* * *

He found her again in the parking lot, his greeting being a sword swipe aimed at her head—one that she dodged expertly before back flipping out of his range. She eyed him with a cocky smile, hands on her hips as she took in his singularly peeved expression. "What's up, sadist?"

"What the hell, China?! After all that you still end up rejecting me? I demand an explanation," he said in a deceptively calm voice.

"Well, I figured you could stand to be more humble, yes?"

"As if I wasn't humble enough already! The least you could have done was said yes! I mean, I didn't read your letter, but what I did say was better, wasn't it?"

Her grin widened, and she tilted her head slightly. "What do you mean, huh? You did read my letter, sadist."

Confused, he stared at her. "I—what?"

"Open it."

Thoroughly bewildered, Sougo sheathed his sword and reached into his pocket. He tore open the envelope with little fanfare and unfolded the pages—then proceeded to reel in shock.

They were blank.

"China…what is this?" His voice was quiet.

"Look at the last page."

He wordlessly did as she asked, expecting some sort of insult, perhaps even a _Gotcha!_ scrawled haphazardly on the paper, but instead his heart thudded at the three words she had written, for once not messy or misspelled.

 _I love you_.

"It's readable, yes?" she asked nervously. "I had Shinpachi proofread it for me."

And, in a rare moment, Sougo found that he couldn't answer. So he didn't—at least not verbally. He walked up to her, heedless of her stuttering of his name, and pulled her into his chest. Startled, she didn't respond at first, but after a few seconds he felt her small arms wrap around his back, small hands clutching the fabric of his uniform as though she didn't want to let go. She was warm, and as she nestled into his chest he remembered how nice it had felt to be this close to her, and marveled at how stupid he had been to take it for granted in the first place.

"You're an idiot," he muttered into her hair. "A huge idiot. Why the hell would you go through all this trouble?"

"Because," she said, voice muffled by his chest, "you're an idiot, too."

* * *

The door slammed against the wall when he kicked it open, but neither of them noticed. Sougo, for his part, was too busy trying to hold Kagura upright in his grasp, her legs around his waist making mobility difficult as he barged his way into the foyer. Their lips didn't separate for a second, even when he kicked the door shut behind them.

Breathless and impatient, they only made it about two feet more before Sougo threw caution to the wind and slammed the redhead against the wall, using it to keep her propped up while he attacked her neck with his mouth.

Kagura grasped his hair, yanking it harshly when he bit down on her throat, and released a tiny squeak in response. Her spine tingled as his hands slid up her thighs, the cloth of her _qipao_ suddenly far too suffocating.

She tightened her legs around his waist when his hands migrated to her own hair, and she felt the ornaments come loose; she saw him sneakily slip them into his back pocket, and he sent her a devious smirk. Grabbing the back of her neck, he pulled her down for another long kiss, and her breath hitched when she felt his hardness pressed against her inner thigh.

"This has to come off," he muttered against her lips, his fingers pulling lightly on the sleeve of her _qipao_.

"Room," she huffed.

"Too far," he said, instead opting for the sofa in the next room over.

Her breath left her lungs when he dropped her on the cushions. His hands were all over her a moment later, surprisingly gentle as he helped her remove her garment.

Kagura felt herself smirk when the sadist saw her barely-clothed body, knowing that she looked stunning in the skimpy red material she had purchased earlier that afternoon.

"What's this, China?" he asked, the note of lust in his voice all too audible to the young woman. "Something you've been hiding from me?"

"Only since earlier today," she shot back, slipping the black jacket off his shoulders; his vest followed suit, and then his shirt and pants a moment later. She saw him kick his shoes and socks off as well, and she did the same. "Sorry I couldn't— _hmm_ —give you the note in person. No time."

"I guess I can let it slide this time, though you were cocky to think I'd actually show up tonight."

"I knew you would."

He smirked, silencing her with another open-mouthed kiss while his hand descended to her breast. She let a low-pitched moan escape when he pinched her nipple, rolling it between his fingers and making her squirm beneath him. He stiffened when she spread her legs, wrapping them around his waist and rolling her hips against his.

He replaced his fingers with his mouth, and Kagura couldn't hold back her hums of approval. Her own hand slid down her body, slipping beneath the red lace that covered her sex and rubbing herself there. She closed her eyes, imagining him inside her, and writhed in impatience when his own hand slipped inside to cover her own.

"Don't have all the fun," he chastised her as he slipped a finger inside and curled it gently. She stiffened, digging her nails into his shoulders and moaning against his throat.

Kagura threw her head back against the armrest when he removed his finger, only to turn his attention to the aching nub between her legs. He idly rubbed her there, the circular motions causing her hips to buck wildly.

"Sougo…" she purred, reconnecting their lips as he increased his pace. She could feel the pressure building up inside her, and cried out when it finally snapped, her body pulled taut and shaking with the release of pent-up tension. A few seconds later, the shivers subsided, and she caught him peering down at her with glazed, hungry eyes.

"Now who's taking too long, huh?" she teased him.

Smirking evilly, he removed his digit and allowed her to slide off his boxers, while he did the same with her undergarments. She thought he looked slightly disappointed when he tossed them aside, and Kagura giggled. "Don't worry—I can wear them next time, too."

"You'd better."

And with that, he buried himself within her.

* * *

"I guess _danna_ was right after all."

Kagura raised her head from Sougo's chest, furrowing her brows as she glanced up at him. "What do you mean?"

From her position on the couch, she could see the corners of the young man's mouth turn up a bit, and he eyed her knowingly. "You really can't trust women in red. They're good at keeping secrets."

She rolled her eyes. "You're just saying that cause you're dumb, uh-huh."

"I disagree. This whole time you were just messing with me. Were you hoping I would eventually snap?"

Kagura shrugged. "I just wanted you to be honest—and I wanted to torture you a little, too. I figured this was the best way."

"So driving me to the point of insanity and public humiliation was your solution?"

Another shrug.

Sougo sighed. "Then there's nothing to be done for it, I guess. You're as sadistic as I am, China."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

He smiled then, a subtle quirk of the mouth that for a rare occasion didn't ooze of mischief or sadism, and closed his eyes. "Who knows?"

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! I appreciate all feedback!**

— **Vicious Ventriloquist**


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